Tuesday, 13 June 2017

Red Sister by Mark Lawrence

Wow! I said it from the first pages of the
book and I am still saying it as I get to the end. Red Sister is this
magnificent fantasy with seriously kick-butt fight scenes and awesome displays
of magic that I was lucky enough to receive a copy of from the publisher via
NetGalley. Mark Lawrence has outdone himself. I have his other books on my to
be read pile but something struck me about this book that I could not wait. As
soon as I had a gap in my calendar for reviews owed by specific dates I jumped
into this book, feet, mind and heart first. No mistake, this book can be
heart-wrenching. From the beginning of the book when the reader is introduced
to Nona Grey the reader is heart sick at how she is taken from her village and
moved to what must be nothing but slavery where children are trained from a
very young age to fight in pits after having been bought and dragged across
lands to be sold to different men who house children to make them fight.

Nona is one inch from death when she is
moved to the convent of the Sweet Mercy. What is different about Sweet Mercy is
that each of the novices are taught not only about the religion that is
prevalent in this world, but, also the craft of being an assassin which comes
in many forms. What draws the reader to the convent’s world is a cast of
amazing characters, from the diverse personality and gifts of the sisters that
are training the girls to each of the novices. In the middle of all the
training is the promise that there is a “chosen one” in which rumors have
floated across the land and it looks like she may have come to Sweet Mercy. This
creates an additional rivalry as the students start vying for their roles not
only in the school, but also in the world. Ara is brought to the convent under
heavy guard to be protected because the emperor’s sister is known to have tried
to have her taken from her family.

The convent is the one place where, like Nona,
she can be safe. Nona comes to the convent under a cloud of suspicion and known
to be from “peasants”. She is the youngest
and smallest when she arrives and initially does not seem to take well to the
others, especially after being abandoned by her village. Clera is the first
person to take Nona under wing and the second person she calls friend which is
of the utmost importance to Clera, so much so it resonates throughout their
relationship and especially at the end of this first part of the story and
leads me to my most favorite line in the book: “You choose your friends. If
you’re going to worship dead people you didn’t choose, then perhaps the bonds
of friendship shouldn’t be so easily broken. No?’ At the end of the day, most
of us can say we didn’t choose our families, but, we did choose our friends
which makes that choice of the utmost importance and something worth protecting.
We have to wait until the next book to see how Clera chooses as she seems to
always choose economic gain.

About Me

Late Checkout - my husband wrote this and it's brilliant!

DCI Kenny Murrain sees, hears and feels things that others do not. It’s a gift but also a curse. When he wakes to the phantom sound of screaming he knows a murder has been committed but not where or why. Click the picture to buy!

Book reviews and author interviews

Most of the books reviewed on this blog have been sent by the publishers or authors. I don't do negative reviews, I only review books I like or feel have something to recommend them to others. I very rarely review self-published books.

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